Banbury Constituency Labour Party

Former MP Sir Tony Baldry

Labour’s election candidate for Banbury last year Sean Woodcock said he supported Jeremy Corbyn’s demand for an independent inquiry into all Britons named in the Panama documents from the offshore Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.

One of the former Conservative MP’s mentioned was Sir Tony Baldry who stepped down at the 2015 General Election after 33 years as Banbury and Bicester MP. He has always defended his international business interests including those in Kazakhstan and Somalia, claiming he always pays his tax.

Sean Woodcock said “David Cameron should stop ‘pussyfooting around’ and get tough on tax havens. Having one set of rules for the wealthy elite and another for the rest is wrong and the richest must pay their way.

“There may well be perfectly legitimate business reasons for investing money with a firm in Panama that have absolutely nothing to do with trying to avoid paying tax or covering up where you made your money. But I can’t think of any,” said Mr Woodcock.

“It is absolutely right that businesses and individuals try to make money. That is how economies grow. Equally it is perfectly natural that these same groups make decisions around where they invest their money with tax in mind. That’s why we have ISAs.

“There seems to be a culture inherent within a small group of people at the very top which goes beyond strategic decision-making or being frugal to outright deception, greed and dishonesty. This is a symptom of that.”